Poultry meat is an important source of high quality proteins, minerals and vitamins to balance the human diet. Specially developed varieties of chicken (broilers) are now available with the traits of quick growth and high feed conversion efficiency. Depending on the farm size, broiler farming can be a main source of family income or can provide subsidiary income and gainful employment to farmers throughout the year. Poultry manure is of high fertilizer value which can be used for increasing yield of all crops.

The advantages of broiler farming are

• a) Initial investment is lower than layer farming
• b) Rearing period is 5-6 weeks only
• c) More number of flocks can be taken in the same shed
• d) Broilers have high feed conversion efficiency i.e. the amount of feed required for unit body weight gain is lower in comparison to other livestock
• e) Faster return from the investment
• f) Demand for poultry meat is more compared to sheep/goat meat